SA may face security threat from within ANC
Ten days ago voice notes purporting to be by supporters of former president Jacob Zuma did the rounds on social media.
They called on former Umkhonto we Sizwe members to rush to Nkandla to protect Zuma because his arrest for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission in defiance of a court order, was imminent.
They claimed that the SA National Defence Force had been deployed to Kwazulu-natal to enforce this imminent arrest.
Over the weekend Whatsapp messages by similar groups were being forwarded by the same self-styled “RET (Radical Economic Transformation) Forces” calling on their members and supporters to shut SA down in protest against President Cyril Ramaphosa, his supporters within the ANC and the so-called Stellenbosch Mafia.
The messages were wild, saying things like: “Those that speak anti-ret are the enemy Cdes. Now is the time to deal with them.”
Or: “Anyone standing in our way must step aside or face the force.”
These peacetime revolutionaries said that on Monday May 17 2021 “all roads lead to Pietermaritzburg where the total shutdown shall begin. There will be a full-scale shutdown and nothing will stop us”.
They called Ramaphosa an “enemy agent” and said that he and 14 other ANC leaders must be recalled from office by the party, through the immediate mounting of an emergency conference.
ANC members across the country have been receiving messages like these for months now as the long arm of the law hovers closer and closer to Zuma and his cronies.
How seriously should we take these things?
Is this just a bunch of illinformed ignoramuses who have Wi-fi access, healthy competitive dynamics within the ANC or does this herald a real security threat to SA?
The ANC’S Northern Cape chairperson and premier, Zamani Saul, said last week that the suspension of Ace Magashule had unleashed chaos in the movement.
He said the chaos was, however, positive because “there is no way we can go through this phase of renewal without there being deep pain, because we are cleansing ourselves”.
Saul and others like him consider the chaos ahead as being serious, deep and yet necessary.
“The battle to renew the organisation will not be an easy one; it’s not a walk in the park. It’s a difficult battle that will generate pain, that will bring about chaos in the organisation, but the only thing we need is focused leadership that is courageous and not easily distracted,” he said.
It’s important to note that Saul speaks here specifically about problems facing the ANC and their impact on the party. He is not speaking about the chaos and problems facing the country in the event of an ANC implosion or threat to the state.
What do we, ordinary citizens, say when faced with an ANC faction that refuses to allow law enforcement agencies to serve a warrant on Zuma — or even arrest him?
What does the country say when a faction of the party starts talking about removing another section of the same organisation from power and refers to them as “the enemy”?
This sort of thing would, ordinarily, be handled by the State Security Agency (SSA), in compliance with the dictates of the constitution and for the benefit of the citizens of SA, but SA does not seem to have a working intelligence capability at all.
Last week the Zondo Commission heard from Inspectorgeneral of Intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe that millions of rand were stolen from the SSA and was used to fund campaigns by factions in the ANC.
Dintwe disclosed that children, family members and girlfriends of political leaders and senior managers were “recruited” to the intelligence services and given bursaries without any regard to the properly constituted criteria of the intelligence services.
This large-scale fraud only came to light when former state security Minister Ronnie Kasrils “disowned” about 40 of these inept James Bonds.
So, the question is this: Does SA face a security threat from the many factions inside the ANC or not?
We don’t know.
The SSA will not be able to tell us because “the children of so and so” are banking fat salaries and cannot and will not do the job of gathering intelligence.
On Friday the Zondo Commission heard from an SSA agent that she had delivered bags of cash on at least three different occasions to the personal home of former State Security Minister David Mahlobo.
She also disclosed that in December 2016 an amount of R1.85m had been used to cover stipends, meals, accommodation and transport for the MK Military Veterans Association — a faction of the ANC — who were deployed to confront those protesting against Zuma ’ s leadership.
Imagine that. State funds were used to fund the same people who are today secretly and openly talking about insurrection.
This is an incredible and terrifying thing to contemplate. SA may face a security threat, but we won’t know.
State funds were used to fund the same people who are today secretly and openly talking about insurrection